Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro $929.00

The Yoga 2 Pro combination laptop/tablet is a superior experience in either role, and its ultra-high-resolution display is awesome. But the dual design slightly compromises the typing experience.

Lenovo has come darn close to creating the perfect laptop/tablet combo design with its 3-pound, $1000-plus IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro. It brings Windows users a better-than-Retina display, has speed to spare, is sturdily constructed, and is remarkably thin for a dual-role design. The only thing missing is Lenovo's famously excellent typing experience.

The first thing you'll notice when you boot a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is how silky, yet sharp everything on the screen appears. Even putting your eyes right up to the display, it's extremely difficult to spot the gaps between pixels. That's what happens when you put 4,560,000 (3800 by 1200) pixels in a mere 13.3-inch diagonal space. Movies, text, iconswow. Aside from the glare produced by the touchscreen glass, it doesn't get any better.

The Yoga 2 Pro's 3200-by-1800 pixel display is a joy to work on.

The Yoga 2 Pro sports double-jointed hinges that allow the display to flip 360 degrees for use as a tablet. Since it's only 0.61-inch thick, it doesn't feel as awkward in that role as previous convertibles I've tested have. The design also lends itself to being propped open with the keyboard portion serving as base or kickstand. Flip it on end, and you can use it on a desk or table in portrait orientation as well. The Yoga 2 is currently available with a silver-gray or clementine-orange upper shell.

The very thin Yoga 2 doesn't have a whole lot of space for ports and switches. Indeed, the power switch on the front right (in laptop mode) is about as tiny as you'll find on a laptop. The only thing tinier is the Novo button next to it that initiates recovery operations when pressed to start the unit.

Tent mode takes great advantage of Windows 8's touch-oriented user interface.

The right side also has the screen-orientation lock, the volume rocker button, a headset jack, and an always-on USB 2.0 port. The left side has a USB 3.0 port, a mini-HDMI port, and an SD memory card slot. The Yoga 2 has 802.11 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, but the Wi-Fi is only 802.11b/g/n, not the newer, faster 802.11ac, which may cause regret in the future. There's no ethernet port, so you'll need a USB adapter if you need to work tethered.

Our review configuration came running Windows 8.1, with a Core i5-4200 CPU, 4GB of DDR3/1600 RAM, and a 128GB Samsung SSD as core components. A number of configurations are available, with the beefiest model on Lenovo's site sporting a Core i7-4500U and a 512GB SSD for $1500.

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Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro review: Great performance and a better-than-Retina display